WP
http://blogs.washingtonpost.com/earlywarning/2006/03/rumsfeld_earns_.htmlWilliam M. Arkin on National and Homeland Security
Rumsfeld Earns an "F"
Well I was wrong. I said on Monday that I found it inconceivable that the Pentagon could possibly think that the Russians had a spy in U.S. military ranks and would blithely release that information to the public.
And yet that seems to be exactly what happened.
Secretary of Defense Mr. Magoo -- Rumsfeld -- admitted yesterday at the Pentagon that the first he had heard of allegations regarding Russia providing intelligence to the Iraqi regime in the run up to the 2003 war was when the news media reported it Friday.
It wasn't as if the "Iraqi Perspectives Project" on "A View of Operation Iraqi Freedom from Saddam's Senior Leadership" was a rogue project the Secretary was unaware of. Rumsfeld had been briefed on the report many months ago and no one evidently thought the information interesting enough to point it out.
Now I'm sure the busy Secretary gets lots of briefings, and I'm just as sure that when the military briefed this report to him, it focused on the 2003 conventional victory slam dunk rather than any insights to failure of judgment Iraqi perspectives might reveal (see my column yesterday).
http://blogs.washingtonpost.com/earlywarning/2006/03/the_pentagons_m.htmlBut still, for a guy known to have laser like vision this is sheer political blindness.
Monday, Secretary Rumsfeld also gave a lecture at the Army War College where he gave the "country" a D or a D-minus grade in the battle of ideas.
The Secretary, of course, didn't give himself this barely passing grade. And just like the Russian spying story, Rumsfeld can't see the obvious, which is how his own actions -- American options -- have contributed to the storm of contempt towards American that much of the world feels today.